Baked Camembert with Garlic & Rosemary Fougasse

Have you seen the Waitrose cheese adverts? They are mouth watering…..show stopping……..food porn at its very best.

My favourite advert is for their Berthaut’s Epoisses Cheese. A Camembert style cheese, baked until melted, served with Olive Fougasse – the French version of focaccia bread. The only problem is, a tub of this cheese and 4 Fougasse will set you back £11.78 in Waitrose…….a cheaper homemade version is definitely in order!

This bread is so enjoyable to make – simple, as far as homemade breads go and looks amazing. Dipped in the baked, melted Camembert, this might just be one of the best things I have ever eaten!

Me and the boys ate it mid afternoon as a sort of early dinner/ late lunch……these photos do not reflect the cheese/bread carnage that ensued afterwards as we fought our way to the bottom of the cheese box!

It would work well as a Christmas starter, brunch or fancy snack when you have friends over.

Don’t be put off by the fact that I use a bread mix, it contains all of the ingredients you would add anyway – just a little shortcut 😉

If you’re looking for a Christmas present for the Aldi/Lidl lover in your life, or need some mid week dinner inspiration, my cookbook is reduced to £4 on Amazon at the moment! Click here to have a look

Feeds 4

Packet of crusty white bread mix

300ml warm water

2 tbls olive oil

A little flour for dusting

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbls finely chopped fresh rosemary

Tub of Camembert cheese (in wooden style box)

A couple of sprigs of fresh thyme

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan.

Finely chop the rosemary and garlic and add to the pan. Gently fry on a low heat for 3 minutes. Set aside and leave to cool.

Put the contents of the bread mix into a mixing bowl. Add the cooled olive oil and rosemary and garlic to the bread flour. Rub in with your fingers until it’s mixed thoroughly with the flour.

Add the warm water to the flour and using your hands, combine until it is a dough. Tip the dough out onto a lightly dusted surface and knead it for 10 minutes.

Place the dough back in the bowl, cover in cling film and place somewhere warm for an hour.

Remove the dough and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead for a couple of minutes and divide the dough into 4 equal pieces.

Roll each piece of dough out into the size of a small dinner plate and place on a greased baking tray (2 per tray)

Using a knife slice the dough down the middle, length ways, leaving a couple of centimetres either end. Then make 3 diagonal slashes on each side, so that it looks a little like a leaf (see picture below)

Cover the baking trays in cling film and place somewhere warm for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 200C

Open the Camembert and remove it from the plastic packaging. Place it back in the wooden base. (no lid) Using a knife make 5 long slashes in the cheese through the skin and almost to the bottom. Pull off some of the Thyme leaves and push them into the slashes at intervals so that you cannot see them. Place the cheese box on a small baking tray.

Remove the cling film from the bread. Place the bread and cheese in the oven for 25 minutes. You make have to rotate the bread once, to ensure that they are cooking evenly.